The Flowers & Plants Association is funded by a range of companies, including breeders and growers, importers and wholesalers, retailers and designers. On this new page we will bring you updates on our members' businesses.

Flowers for Funerals with Claire Cowling of Thrive Floristry

On the morning of Wednesday 29 April (8am to 10am) Claire will be taking the audience through innovative design ideas and techniques to create beautiful floral tributes at a range of price points. Andrea Caldecourt of the F&PA will be our compere, and a tutor from Southwark College will talk us through the topic of 'diverse floral tributes'.

Newcomers to the Flower market will be invited to attend Florist Buddy tours at 7.15am and 10am, whilst Thrive Floristry will be offering a wide range of publications for visitors to purchase that morning. See more >>

New Covent Garden Market Celebration of Spring
4th March, London

With designer demonstrations using seasonal flowers from the market, floral installations from member Zita Elze and others, along with tours and advice, there was much to see at the CGMA event. Andrea Caldecourt, Chief Executive, compered the morning's activities. For more information or for future event news, www.newcoventgardenmarket.com

New Covent Garden Market College Days

Sarah Holland, Communications Manager, judged the 21 entries from 10 colleges along with foliage wholesaler
Barry Porter. Winner Plumpton college produced a design that was well-sourced and well made; other creative and attractive designs were also produced by F&PA member colleges. It's great to see how inspiring the next wave of budding florists are, they're sure to be keeping abreast of the seasonal flower fashion trends from the Flowers & Plants Association!

Welsh College Students Create Floral Artworks for ALDI Supermarket

Welsh College of Horticulture Floristry students were recently commissioned to interpret the work of some of the finest artists of all time.  The students recreated famous paintings such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and Monet’s Water Lilies, in 12ft by 12ft frames using just flowers and foliage! Read More > >

Grower of the Year Awards 2009

The Grower of the Year Awards 2009 are about celebrating the best examples of business excellence, innovation, technical expertise and personal achievement within UK production horticulture in the last 18 months.

Congratulations to The Real Flower Company who won 'Cut Flower Grower of the Year'. Read More > >

The RHS Chelsea
Florist of the Year Competition

RHS Chelsea Flower Show - May

Have you got what it takes?
The Royal Horticultural Society is proud to announce the launch of ‘The RHS Chelsea Florist of the Year’ competition in association with the British Florist Association. This competition is to be held at the world’s most famous flower show in Chelsea, London and showcases the very best in professional retail floristry. See more >>

www.britishfloristassociation.org

Thrive Floristry Launch New Magazine
'Flowers for Funerals'

In the UK each year there are around 500,000 deaths, which, coincidentally is almost double the number of marriages.

Thrive Floristry feel the time is right for florist’s to explore and increase this important part of their business.

It is uplifting and in no way morbid; design led, rather than advertising led, and although the designs are primarily for funerals, many of them can easily be used or adapted for other functions or occasions.

The magazine will be published quarterly; some of the designs will be seasonal to reflect the time of year, others contemporary, the remainder traditional. There will be around 75 designs in each issue as well as relevant articles and interesting floral facts and trivia.

Thrive Floristry Website

Webbs

Staff at Webbs, the UK's Garden Centre of the Year 2008, celebrated another year of triumph with their own red carpet awards ceremony in

Almost 200 Webbs staff turned out to the fourth annual ceremony at The Pear Tree Inn, Smite, to find out who were the stars scooping this year’s top awards. Certificates and prizes were presented to staff to celebrate a wide range of training initiatives and individual and department successes over the last year, including the crowning achievement of winning UK Garden Centre of the Year from the Garden Centre Association (GCA), the organisation representing the best garden retailers in Britain, for the second year running.

Webbs Website

Thrive Floristry

Member florist Claire Cowling of Thrive Floristry teamed up with member rose breeder and grower David Austin Roses recently, creating wedding designs for the rose growers' new set of wedding images.

Her wedding designs have also been featured in the most recent issues Fusion Weddings magazine and the International Annual of Floral Art.

Claire runs workshops and has a host of corporate clients. For more information or to buy the titles where Claire's work has been featured, visit

Thrive Floristry Website

Lupins

Local florist Lupins is celebrating a successful first year of trading by expanding to larger
premises, and will be offering customers a chance to win a fabulous signature hand tied
bouquet, worth £40 in a free prize draw, held on Thursday 3rd April 2008 at Chesapeake
Mill, Wickham. Zoe Hanson from PowerFM’s Breakfast Show will be officially opening
Lupins additional premises and helping the celebrations get off to a flying start from
12.30pm

Lupins Website